Coming Up: Let’s Delight in Domingo in HD at the Majestic

Opera lovers, don’t miss this opportunity to see the legendary Placido Domingo in a new baritone role, Wednesday, July 12, at the Majestic in Vero. Presented by Vero Beach Opera and the Majestic, “Nabucco” is the next in the Metropolitan Opera’s Peabody and Emmy Award-winning series “The Met: Live in HD.” Domingo sings the title role in this story of the fall of ancient Jerusalem at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar (Nabucco), which New York Times critic Zachary Woolfe calls “a biblical potboiler of religious wars and forbidden love.” Of Domingo’s performance, Operawire critic David Salazar gushes, “Placido Domingo, 75, is still a rock star.” This opera was Verdi’s third opera, and became his first huge success, making him famous and beloved, due, according to Robert Levine in Bachtrack, “to the chorus of enslaved Hebrews, ‘Va, pensiero,’ which acted as a not-so-subtle metaphor for the Italians who despised being under the thumb of Austria in 1842.” In Italy to this day, he notes, that chorus is an “unofficial national anthem.” You’ll find the vocal displays – for the slave girl Abigaille (soprano Liudmyla Monastyrska) in particular – spectacular. Domingo’s longtime collaborator James Levine conducts. Show time Wednesday is 7 p.m. An encore showing is Saturday, July 15, at 10 a.m. Running time is two hours.

Hey there, Vero Beach, it’s time again for Sunset Saturday Night, the fun, free monthly concert series brought to you by the Oceanside Business Association to promote arts and culture, and just have lots of fun, with lots of music. Music this Saturday is by the JD Ozone Band, and you needn’t bring snacks or bevs because there’ll be plenty of both available for purchase. The family-friendly street party takes place along Ocean Drive, at Humiston Beach Park, from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. When the final chord has sounded, you can enjoy a stroll, maybe dropping in at one of the hotels, restaurants or bars along and near Ocean Drive to make your Saturday evening by the sea last a bit longer.
Up the road a bit, jazz lovers and jazz musicians have been hanging out at Heidi’s Jazz Club (in the Heidelberg Restaurant) in Cocoa Beach since it opened its doors in 1992. The cool, easy ambiance includes lots of polished wood, soft recessed lighting, a well-positioned stage, and walls tastefully hung with jazz-compatible art – original works by Brian Dowdall, Kurt Zimmerman, Sooz Momofuku and Wayne Coombs. Heidelberg cuisine is, no surprise, German, but the musical main dish is the jazz, live Wednesdays through Sundays, featuring regular artists and frequent special guest artists. Thursdays 7 p.m. to 10 p.m., you will definitely get your jazz on with Sybil Gage and the Catahoulas.

A New Orleans native, the deceptively petite (5-foot-3, 110 pounds wringing wet) Gage possessives an impressive set of pipes, and knows her way around the genres – jazz, blues – earning her comparisons to Kitt, Washington, Bailey and Joplin. In 2008, Space Coast Living Magazine named her “Best Musician in Brevard County,” and her fans label themselves “Sybilized.” Gage’s glam persona is as engaging as her voice, with feather boas and statement hats bespeaking her New Orleans roots. She shares that her band, the Catahoulas, are named for the Catahoula Cur, the state dog of Louisiana (known for their loyalty, she adds, with a nod to the band). Fridays, 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., it’s pianist (and retired dentist) Steve Kirsner and Friends, from the Space Coast Jazz Society. Kirsner plays by ear and – with Al Dodds on bass, Stan Soloko on drums, Len Bentley on trumpet and Steve Lomazzo on sax – keeps the music, energy and laughter moving along. The Ron Teixeira Trio (aka the House trio) takes the stage Fridays and Saturdays from 8:30 p.m. till midnight. On Saturdays, through July, Israeli writer and singer Hella Ayelet Gal will join the Ron Teixeira Trio. Hella began performing at 18, while fulfilling her duty with the Israeli Defense Forces, and since has performed all over the world.

A Broadway musical classic, “Brigadoon,” opens a three-day run next Friday, July 14, at the King Center in Melbourne. This delightful show is the culmination of an intensive, five-week-long Summer Musical Theatre Project for young adults, and is being presented by the King Center for the Performing Arts and the Historic Cocoa Village Playhouse. The show is a romantic Scottish fantasy about a town, Brigadoon, that appears for only one day every hundred years, then disappears into the Highland mists for another century. Of course, a young man from the present stumbles upon Brigadoon on its one day in time, and meets a young Brigadoon lass. Show times are July 14 at 7:30 p.m.; July 15 at 7:30 p.m.; and July 16 at 2 p.m. Tickets are $18 for adults, and $12 for students, seniors and children 12 and under.